


From the Beginning to the Top

by Allekha



Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Ficlets, Gen, Post-Canon, Pre-Canon, five things
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-29
Updated: 2020-09-29
Packaged: 2021-03-07 23:47:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,709
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26716258
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Allekha/pseuds/Allekha
Summary: Five firsts over the years, from Victor being the first to land all the quads, to Chris's first win over Victor, to Phichit being the first skater from Thailand to compete at the Olympics.
Comments: 6
Kudos: 17
Collections: Unofficial FFA Unanon Collection





	From the Beginning to the Top

People from their figure skating club have made it to Regionals before. A couple have even made it to Sectionals – a talented girl, as well as a guy or two who made it by not being last place at Regionals. But none of them have ever qualified for Nationals. Until now.  
  
"I can't believe we're going!" Yuuko squeals, dancing around the hotel room while her parents chuckle at her enthusiasm from near the door. "Nationals! That's incredible!"  
  
"It is," Yuuri agrees. He hasn't been able to stop smiling since they left the arena. Nationals are a huge step up from anywhere else they've ever skated before. Even if it's just novice Nationals.  
  
But Yuuri is already thinking about how if he does really well – which he probably won't, but if he does, he can even go to junior Nationals! And if he's good enough, if he keeps skating cleanly and adding difficulty, then he'll start being sent to international competitions soon, and that's one step closer to skating on the same ice as Victor one day. All he has to do is to get better fast enough, and then prove himself. No more competition nerves. He needs to focus and stop feeling like he's going to throw up before he competes.  
  
Yuuko grabs his hands. Her eyes are sparkling; she had a rougher skate than him today and didn't place as well as he did, but she's always been better at brushing that stuff off. What really matters is that they're both moving on. Sometimes Yuuri wishes he could have her mental ease, but her excitement is, as ever, infectious. "Our first Nationals together! The first of all the ones we're going to together!"  
  
"Yeah," he says, grinning back at her. "Let's work really hard when we get home so we do well there!"  
  
He has a lot of catching up to do if he wants to skate with Victor one day. He needs all his triples, he needs to learn a quad, he needs better expression, he needs a lot of things – but at least now he has solid proof that he's making progress towards that goal.  
  
\---  
  
After the first time Yuri competes as one of Yakov's skaters, he finds a back hallway and calls his grandpa, too wired to wait until he gets back to the hotel. He barely lets Grandpa say hello before he blurts out, "I won today."  
  
"That's wonderful," Grandpa says, and Yuri relaxes against the cold wall. He tells him about the competition, and even though Grandpa doesn't get a lot of this skating stuff, he does like to hear that Yuri got all his spin levels and landed his jumps.  
  
And of course he likes to hear that Yuri won. He took first place over boys who have had more time working with top-tier coaches, more hours in ballet studios, more money for skates and lessons. Because Yuri's just that good. Which he knew already.  
  
But hardly anybody else knows, so Yuri has to show all of them. He needs to prove that it's a good idea that Yakov took him on, him over any of the other dozens of boys desperate to work with the coach that produced Victor. He needs to make the money that Grandpa's spent worth it.  
  
Some day, he's going to be a world champion and Olympic champion and the government's going to pay him to skate and Yuri will buy Grandpa a new car or a new apartment with a great kitchen or whatever else he needs. And when that day comes, nobody is going to remember or care that he won this stupid little competition that doesn't matter for anything.  
  
Right now, though, he's made his statement. Yuri's here to take first place – not just at this competition, but at the next one, too, and the next one, all the way until he's reached the top.  
  
\---  
  
Victor's not the first person to land the quad loop, to his chagrin, missing it by a few months. (He really needs to talk with this Seung-gil guy sometime. Congratulate him, probably.) Still, when he finally lands it in front of a crowd at the gala, it's a first in another way, and not just for him.  
  
"That's all of them," he laughs in the hallway afterward with Yakov. Even if this one still needs to go into a competition program, he's now the first skater to land all of the different quads. (Except the axel, but he's trying to be conscientious about Yakov's blood pressure.) Amazing. He's amazing. Skating is amazing. It's the brightest he's felt all season. He thinks he feels better now than he did at the last Olympics.  
  
Yakov is smiling. Really smiling, if not widely. Victor finds it fun to make him blow up and grumble, but it's nice to see him happy about his wild ambitions for once. Yakov throws Victor's jacket back onto his shoulders and throws an arm around him, and his touch is warm and all the cheering is still echoing in his ears and maybe this is what Victor's been missing lately.  
  
He also set another record in the competition, earlier, but he's already forgotten the score. The numbers don't really matter. He was going to win after skating a program like that. Another Euros title. Fifth in a row. That one's not a first, but it's still pretty impressive, if not so much as his Olympic medals.  
  
Maybe he needs another challenge again for next season. Something else to be first at besides the numbers. Or maybe he should relax with the jumps a bit, try something new artistically. He'll think about it. Usually he has a ton of ideas for new programs, but this year there's not anything else he really wants to skate to yet.  
  
Another first, one that's not going to go on his wiki page. Victor keeps it to himself. First to land all the quads is a lot more fun.  
  
\---  
  
Being at the top of the podium has never, in Chris's life, felt so sweet. Because never, in Chris's life, has Victor been standing to his right at the same time.  
  
2017 European champion: Christophe Giacometti. Silver medalist: Victor Nikiforov. It's like a dream. Little Yuri is steaming in third place, forcing a smile for the press. It's nice to be over him, too, after the GPF, but it's not the same thing as finally winning over Victor. It only took most of a decade, most of Chris's senior career.  
  
If Victor finds any bitterness in their placements, he doesn't show it at all: he congratulates Chris with all apparent sincerity and grins while they take photos together. Chris, in return, doesn't show all of his excitement when he's interviewed, acting the part of the gracious winner. He praises Victor and how Victor's pushed him and everyone else in the sport, and he means it even if that's not what he wants to talk about right now.  
  
There's still Worlds to come – Victor will be stronger there, Yuuri will be more of a threat, JJ might have his confidence back, Otabek isn't one to be counted out – but for tonight, Chris buys himself chocolate to nibble on and stares at his medal and thinks of how finally, finally, finally he has bested Victor.  
  
All those years of working and trying. Quads and new directions to his programs and feeling like it was now his year, only to watch Victor whip out something new and even more astoundingly difficult. Two Olympics together. An entire career spent trying to climb out of second place.  
  
Not a lot of people can say that they've out-skated Victor, not anymore. Chris likes Victor, a lot, but the bitterness and resignation has been creeping up on him over the years and now it seeps away as he relaxes in his hotel room. His first win over Victor, finally – but maybe it won't be the last, either.  
  
\---  
  
Phichit's been a lot of firsts.  
  
First Thai skater to do a lot of things – to get a GP spot, to land a quad, to make the GPF, and now to make the Olympics. Not only that, but he's in the running for a top-10 finish, and it's definitely possible that he could make the podium. He's felt like he's on the verge of exploding with excitement for weeks now.  
  
Someone interviewed him the other day, and he talked a lot about the good and the bad parts about always being the first – how he's lucky his parents could and did send him abroad for training once his talent was recognized. How lucky he is to have his wonderful coaching team and be able to train in Bangkok now. How hard he has to work for recognition as someone from a country with no other major skaters.  
  
But it's worth it, because Phichit loves skating, and it's worth it when he comes to the rink and the kids training there – there are more of them now – look up to him. And it's worth it more than ever, now, adjusting his scarf before he takes the flag someone hands him.  
  
His flag. Thailand's flag. There's only four other athletes standing in the delegation with him, and he's the one who's been chosen to carry it. Phichit tries to put his serious face on, but it only lasts a moment before it turns back into his grin. He can't help it; this is amazing!  
  
They have a moment, so they crowd in for a Team Thailand selfie, and then they have to line up and get ready. Phichit's heart is fit to burst with joy as they stride out together, flag waving and crowd cheering. Hopefully some of the kids watching this back home right now will ask for skating lessons; maybe some of them will be good enough to be in his place one day, and there won't be just one of them marching into the stadium.  
  
And maybe, Phichit thinks, he'll capture another first in a few days – first medal at the Winter Olympics for his country. Whatever happens, he's going to skate all-out and leave his heart on the ice, and do his best to come off of it with a smile.

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt: being first  
> Rewrote Victor's part some from the original posting after I realized he isn't said in canon to have landed the 4Lo in competition, only in an exhibition, oops.


End file.
